THE GARDENS OF VENICE 
which he introduced into his altar-piece of S. Pietro 
Martire, and which was still standing fifty or sixty 
years ago, has been cut down. But another charming 
garden in this quarter still remains, and has been 
little changed since the days of Titian and Aretino. 
It belongs to the Villa Contarini del Zaffo, so called 
because its owners were patrons of the galley which 
yearly bore pilgrims for the Holy Land to the port 
of Jaffa. This house was the birthplace of Gaspare 
Contarini, the distinguished scholar and statesman, 
whom his friend Bembo justly called the pillar of the 
Church and the brightest ornament of the Republic, 
who to the joy of his fellow-citizens was in his last 
days made a Cardinal by the enlightened Farnese 
Pope, Paul III. The Cardinal’s portrait still hangs 
in the salone of the villa, with the finely painted roof, 
and his bust adorns the family chapel where his ashes 
rest, in the neighbouring church of the Madonna del 
Orto. The garden of Villa Contarini, which three 
hundred years ago was one of the most beautiful 
in Venice, has been carefully reconstructed by its 
present owners on the lines of the original design, 
and affords a typical example of a Venetian Renaissance 
garden. The formal parterres are divided by yew and 
hornbeam hedges, and adorned with fountains and 
red brick exedra, and at the end of the cypress avenues 
three gateways with finely moulded pilasters and 
113 H 
